This blog is for Khoja Shia Isna Asheri Community known as Twelver Khojas also.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

KPSIAJ Data Analysis

In today’s world data analysis and data modeling holds an enormous significance, lot of work is been done on data collection, globally, through various techniques and is used in different research and analysis projects. We all are aware with the importance of “Quality Data” and the rule of GIGB (garbage in, garbage out), someone can ask the difference between data and quality data, the data is called a quality data “if they are fit for their intended uses in operations, decision making and planning".

In light of this definition of quality data, we will discuss the importance of data management and analysis inside khoja jamaat and khoja community. In my opinion, khoja jamaat has worked a lot on “Data collection” during past few years but after data collection I found some lacking in making this data a quality data (read the definition again). Before proceeding further I want to discuss types of information in context to our Khoja Jamaat.

With a membership database of just (+ -) 10,000 people of Khoja (Pirhai) Shia Isna Asheri Jamaat we haven’t seen any statistical data management by our jamaat ever. In my opinion jamaat should at least start data analysis on macro level and with maturity in process they can go in micro details.

What if our jamaat had details of all khoja family members of Karachi, let’s look at some good and practical examples in that case. Currently when jamaat announces any activity program like summer camp, picnic, seminar, workshop etc. the decision is on basis of wild guess, a broad range of audience is focused without any prior analysis, what if they had something like following printout in their hands.

Wasn’t it been easy for them to decide which audience or age group to focus for which kind of activity? If you think out of the box, from this one matrix many different results can be extracted like possible matriculates this year, expected marriages this year or gender ratio in khoja community etc.

If any of you have ever seen different forms of khoja jamaat which you have to fill for membership, nikah, divorce, death etc. it has the sufficient information for different statistical analysis, we can go through few more examples.

Example 2:

I am a member of KPSIAJ with a membership ID xxx, my daughter is married to Mr. ABC with a membership ID yyy, both information is mentioned in different forms, will it not be good if they have relation between xxx and yyy. As every nikah has to be registered in KPSIAJ, imagine with this one relation what can be achieved.

Example 3:

If today jamaat is asked to provide the information of doctors, engineers, accountants etc. in our community, they will not be able to provide it. Isn’t this information useful in many aspects?

Example 4:

Ratio of registered member of KPSIAJ Karachi, living in different countries can be helpful for international campaigns.

Example 5:

Some educational matrix can grab attention of local and international organizations for betterment of khoja youth. See the below matrix, will it not be useful information of education trend in khoja community.

There can be many examples of such kind. Thus what I want to prove is although we are from same community; we lack the concept of social networking on official platform. May be there are some independent organization/group who are working for it but it would be very good if we have some initial level statistics of our community people.

The most difficult part in implementing this process is the data collection phase. From types of information, category 1 and 2 is already achieved by khoja jamaat, in these categories they have to work on the quality and management of data but the category 3 is still far away from their reach. Another issue in category 3 is that this information is not static and is changed frequently so one time collection of data will not work in long term, there should be some ongoing process so the outdated data can be purged continuously.

There can be several possible solutions for this exercise.

1. Online Updates

Although ratio of internet users are growing day by day but still there are majority of people in khoja community who do not have access to internet, for those people we can sort out some different data collection technique but for people having internet facility, there can be a web based portal where people can update their information. Imagine the strength of this database as this can be accessed by local and international community members.

2. For people without internet access, there are several manual ways.

a. Every 3 years at the time of election, there can be separate desks where information can be gathered.

b. Many community students are studying under Fatimiyah network that can cover certain percentage.

c. Women wings arranges different programs like summer camp, yearly picnic, seminars etc. around 150-200 families can be accessible by this means.

d. Stalls can be placed in different Ramzan and Muharram programs.

Last but not least, when Khoja Jamaat have sufficient information about different families, they can work on many projects for betterment of community, today if some donation is sent for “MUSTAHIQ” people of khoja community, I don’t think jamaat has some pre-defined or pre-collected data which can justify the word “MUSTAHIQ”, decisions are made on “as and when needed” basic and people who are real “MUSTAHIQ” for that aid are not identified as they are “Out of site and thus out of mind”.

Once the concept is introduced it can expand a lot and can be helpful in many ways.

68 comments:

Assalam-o-alikumMy name is Murtaza Fazal and i'm a student of FAST-NU doing BS(CS).

Mashallah , at last something thought of this. Data collection is not neccessary just for statistical analysis but we should b aware where is our community in different walks of life... do we knw that how many PhD we have? i don't think so. And if we have correct data we can develop our community in fields where we lack.

I guess we should start the data gethering asap as that will take alot of time and on the other end we can develop an internet portal as in describe in the topic..i'm pretty sure alot of Khoja Software Engineers would be willing to work for it . Hope this article becomes a reality

very good idea. current managing committe of kpsiaj should work for data collection and managing data quality.today when a new person is migratted to other country, if he has prior information of his community mates residing in that country it would be a great help.similarly what brother murtaza mentioned, if we have information of community people in different professions we can form professional communites like forum for all khoja doctors, accountants, computer field etc.I hope this article will not be treated as a routine article but someone will start groundwork for it.

Nice Article! " APPEAL TO KPSIAJ PRESIDENT AND ELECTED BODY: " I am a student of 3rd year in a University in Karachi. Its rightly said that 'A community is uplifted by the education recieved by its people'. This can be proved by this example: that Memon community opened a study centre/library many years back for its youth, which is 24 HOURS Open for Memons..where the entry is Restricted ONLY to 'MEMON students!' The result of this is the professionals being produced in All fields by Memon community. I am a student of 3rd year in a University and like me many of my friends and other students DIRELY feel the BASIC NEED for a study Library..we dont even have a singele full time library in our densely populated area Soldier Bazar. Previously we used to have Imam Khomeni (R.A) Library..but now its services are closed also. Its high time that our ELECTED leaders put an eye over this Really CRITICAL Issue..Our KPSIAJ should do some thing about it before we students are left too much behind in competition from other communities.Thank You.

I liked the idea about list of needy people as from our part of the world millions of rupees are collected every year for charity and it will be great if we have list of our community people who are in need of help.

Initially I had submitted a power point presentation to the new management and had offered my honaray services for this noble cause.

Over and above the Internet portal I would suggest to collect the data through PDA's by door to door visit. In this way data entered on PDA's would be updated directly to the database and we would save lot of time and resources for entering the manual data.

As a owner of CIS software house we would be glad to offer our free software services / consultancy for the above cause.

Mashallah Brother Altaf Hussain, I hope management of KPSIAJ will avail this opportunity and start focusing on this kind of projects.It will be extremely good if they have complete information of all community members.I as a layman can think of several benefits from this data collection project and few of them are mentioned in this article as well.I am sure Inshallah elected body of KPSIAJ will implement this idea and people like you can be very helpful for this project.

Nice Idea. And it is very practical. If we as a community want to rise we need to do this exercise. And one more thing it s not one time exercise, it s an ongoing process on regular interval. I appreciate this idea.Imran

Some very useful suggestions. Would also suggest adding questions on social attitudes and practices, related to educational and career aspirations, marriage and divorce, family and social values. The surveys could be random-sample based or community-wide, depending on the logistics and needs. They would allow the jamaat management and the community to become aware of the social trends and evaluate the outcome of any social awareness related efforts they (the management) may do in the next three years.

I don't know if the current management is aware of the communication on this blog. They should, and perhaps the owner could contact them about it.

brother Asad Ali ,in regard to ur points, its not the work of the jamat officals to do the workonly, we can create a platform for them and they can carry on from there.. if u have gone through the above comments u'll find a software house offer for this and even i being a computer science student can work in this regard :)

And if u remain within the 3 yr agenda then we would never progress because the world is moving fast and we hav to be united and not only work on watsoever 3 yr agenda but move forward aswell

and if we can email them , y can't we give them a formal proposal regarding this or put things in their ear ...or start on our own until it reaches popularity :)

we should make a step towards progress in not only religious matters but in worldly matters aswell :)

my dear ali,since the very first day, we are hearing that new committee has some plan.... but when are they going to execute it...

the only thing they are doing is majlis, milad, and dumb seminars....come on yaaaaaaar we have thousand of imam barghas and masjids for these majlises and milads, distributing the community further more. at first amals and all these religious activities were done at one central location. but thanks to our so called mulla and donors we have several of location in a specific area (lets say soldier bazar and kharadar) where every one is just polishing his name. and now jammat is in the race too. why not, after all everyone is in the same profession.

why can't they do any thing productive or implement the plans which they talked about during their election campaign. its about time now to see the results..

the writer of this blog with this post gives an awesome idea... but with this pace i can't see any changes occuring in near future... infact we are moving in backwards direction. they can't even maintain a stupid website which was there during the last regime.

I 100% agree with the your comment, there are several things other than majlis, milad and seminars and most important of all is already mentioned in this blog. jamaat shld leave majlis and milad events to religious groups and shld focus on betterment of community.

i am gettin sms from CWO on regular basis for these program.. CWO is the same organization who supported mezan pannel so that they can groom as an organization... these days with jamaat full support they are arranging several programs in bhojani hall, without even paying its rent as well as utility bills and other expenses...

Salamun alaikum,I just entered in this blog. Let me check the others comments and current situation of newely elected jamaat. As I am and I was an active social worker of the community but for the last 3 years I am in Iran for the studies of my children.I am glad to know that jamaat is going for senssus. May Allah bless them and bless all those who are working on this issue.

U ALL ARE ONLY BLAMING OUR JAMMAT, LET WE DO SOME THING FOR MAKE IT BETTER, BETTER & BESThttp://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/home.php?sk=group_148563388520718&ap=1 JOIN THIS GROUP ON FACEBOOK & COME WE DO SOMETHING MAKE A INDEPENDENT COMMUNITY NOT A DEPEND PERSON.REGARDSONE FROM UR COMMUNITY

YOU SHOULD WEAR BANGLES IN YOUR HANDS SO PLEASE GIVE ME YOUR SIZE SO THAT I CAN DELIVER IT TO YOU THROUGH TCS MANAGING JAMAT IS NOT FOR YOU SO IT IS BETTER FOR YOU TO REMAIN IN AT YOUR HOME WHEN YOU CANNOT DO ANY THING TO IMPLIMENT THE WRITTEN STATMET OF A MAN HIS PROMISE THROUGH CPLC OR BY OTHER MEANS ALL OF YOU MUST RESIGN AT ONCE

ALL OF YOU MUST WEAR BANGLES IN YOUR HANDS SO PLEASE GIVE ME THE SIZE OF YOUR BAGLES SO THAT I CA DELIVERTHE BANGLES THROUGH TCS OR BY PERSONALLY AND I WILL ADVICE YOU TO REMAI IAT YOUR RESIDENCE AND NOT COMETO JAMAT OFFICE OTHERWISE I WILL HAVE TO CAPTURE THE JAMAT OFFICE IF YOU CAN NOT DO ANYTHING TO IMPLIMENT ON A STATEMENT WRITTEN BY A CULPRIT IN PRESENCE OF FRC THROUGH CPLC HE SHOULD BE HANGED IN MY OPINION HIS CONTACT NO. IS 021-32060593 021-32060594 0321-2322288 0333-232228 AND ADDRESS IS 3RD FLOOR, QASR-E-ZAINAB, PLOT NO. 157, RODRICK'S ROAD, SOLDIER BAZAR MO. 1 KARACHI SO DO EEDFULL OR RESIGN AT ONCE

OUR VICE PRESIDENT MR. ASGHAR HUSSAIN SHAHIDI IS AGAINST THE INSTALLATION OF ALAMS HE THINKS IT IS A SOURCE OF WORSHIP(POOJA PATH) I ASK ALL OF YOU THAT IF HE HAS ANY RIGHT TO HOLD THE SEAT AFTER HAVING SUCH THOUGHTS AND ALSO I CHALLENGES HIM THAT IF HE IS A MAN OF ONE WORD EITHER TO STOP THE INSTALLATION OF ALAM IN GRAVE YARD(QABRASTAN)ON SUNDAY THE 5TH DECEMBER, 2010 UNDER THE SUPERVISSION OF KHOJA(PIRHAI)SHIA ISNA ASHERI JAMAT KARACHI OR TO RESIGN FROM THE SEAT IMMIDATELY I ONLY WANT TO SEE THAT WHO IS STRONGER MY GHAZI HAZRAT ABUL FAZLIL ABBAS ALAMDER(A.S.) QAMRE BANI HASHIM, FATEH-E-FURAT, SAQA-E-SAKINA(A.S.) SON OF HAZRAT ALI IBNE ABI TALIB(A.S.) OR VICE PRESIDENT.

SHAM ON ALL OF COMMUNITY MEMBERS BECOUSE NONE OF YOU RESPONDED ON THE ANTI-ALAM THOUHTS OF VICE-PRESIDENT MR. ASGHAR HUSSAIN SHAHIDI WHO SAYS HE IS A MOULANA BUT HE IS A BLACK SPOT ON THE ENTIRE COMMUNITY AND ALL ULMA-E-KARAM

I WANT TO BRING IN TO THE NOTICE OF ALL HONOURABLE MEMBERS OF KHOJA JAMAT THAT OUR JAMAT IS INVOLVED IN SIN THAT IS THEY SUPPORTED AND MANAGED THE NIKAH OF A DAUGHTER OF JAMAT MISS. MEHAK NAZ WITHOUT THE PERMISSION OF HER FATHER SAJJAD HUSSAIN MUKHI WHOSE FAMILY MEMBERS ARE MUQALIDS OF AYATULLAH SEESTANI WHICH IS A SIN IN THE SIGHT OF SHARIAH MUJTHADINS AS ACCORDING TO MUJTEHEDINS PERMISSION FROM FATHER IS NECESSORY WHEN THE FATHER IS ALIVE IT TOOK PLACE WITH THE HELP OF A PERSON NAMELY HASSAN ALI HILAL WHO RECITED THE NIKAH WITHOUT HER FATHER PERMISSION AND HENCE THE JAMAT AND HASSAN ALI HILAL HAVE COMENCED A SIN BY NOT FOLLOWING THE MUJTEHADINS ORDER WHICH SAYS THAT ‘ NIKAH OF A VIRGIN GIRL MUST BE CARRIED OUT WITH THE PERMISSION OF HER FATHER IF HE IS AVAILABLE AND IF HE IS IN HIS SENSES’ AND WE BWLIEVE THAT A MUJTEHID IS A NAEB-E-IMAM AND MEETS WITH IMAM-E-ZAMANA AND OBEYING HIM IS MUST FOR ALL OF US AND NOT OBEYING IS A SIN AND ALSO THIS ACT WHICH THEY HAVE DONE IS A SIN AND ALL THE CULPRITS INVOLVED IN THIS SIN MUST BE PUNISHED BY A HUD THAT IS THEY MUST BE PUNISHED FOR HELPING IN ADULTERY BY SANGSARI OR KORDEY A DETAIL FATWA MUST BE ASKED BY MUJTEHEDINS IN THIS CASE I ONLY WANT A EGYPTIAN REVOLUTION IN OUR COMMUNITY SO PLEASE HELP ME AS IT IS ALSO GOOD AND BEST OPTION FOR ALL OF YOU AND ALSO ALL THE FAILIURE OF JAMAT MUST RESIGN AT ONCE IF THEY FOLLOWS THE QURAN AND SUNNAH SHAME ON THE JAMAT SAJJAD HUSSAIN MUKHIE-MAIL: sajjad_mukhi@hotmail.comCELL NO. 0333-2100621

WHO SAYS HASSAN ALI HILAL IS A NIKAH KHWAN HE IS MERELY A TAXI DRIVER RATHER A 'DO TAKAY KA MOAZAN' HE MUST BE PUNISHED WUTH STONNING TILL DEATH AS HE HAS PERFORMED A NIKAH WHICH HAS LEAD TO ADULTERY ON FOR THE SAKE OF A ENVELOPE OF RS. 500/-

WHO SAYS HASSAN ALI HILAL IS A NIKAH KHWAN HE IS MERELY A TAXI DRIVER RATHER A 'DO TAKAY KA MOAZAN' HE MUST BE PUNISHED WITH STONNING TILL DEATH AS HE HAS PERFORMED A NIKAH WHICH HAS LEAD TO ADULTERY ONLY FOR THE SAKE OF A ENVELOPE OF RS. 500/-

JAMAT'S MEMBERS DO NOT NEED THE MANAGING COMMITTEE AND SEAT BEARERS WHO ONLY SITS IN THE A/C OFFICES DRINKING TEA AND CIGRETTES AND PIPES AND DO NOTHING FOR JAMAT THEY ARE ONLY BURDEN ON JAMAT AS THE A/C ELECTRIC BILLS ARE NOT PAID BY THEIR OWN POCKET BUT ARE PAID BY JAMAT

AYATULLAH SEESTANI HAS CLEARLY GIVEN HIS FATWA ON THE MARRIAGE OF MEKAK NAZ D/O SAJJAD HUSSAIN MUKHI 'A virgin girl's marriage without her father's permission is not valid' THIS IS A CLEAR AND POWERFULL SLAP ON THE FACE OF JAMAT, HASSAN ALI HILAL(NOT A NIKAH KHAWAN BUT MERELY A DO TAKAY KA MOAZIN AND A TAXI DRIVER SO BEWARE OF HIM AND DO NOT GET YOUR NIKAH BE RECITED AND REGISTER BY HIM BECAUSE HE WILL LEAD YOU TO PERFORM SIN) AND THE MOTHER OF THAT GIRL AND ALL THE PERSONS INVOLVED IN THIS SIN

FATWA BY AYATULLAH SISTANI ON THE NIKAH OF A VIRGIN GIRL WITHOUT THE PERMISSION OF HER FATHER_______________________________________بسمه تعالىازدواج دختر باکره بدون اجازه پدرش صحیح نیستA virgin girl's marriage without her father's permission is not valid.

May Allah grant you success.English@alsistani.orgBoard of IstiftaOffice of Grand Ayatollah Sistani

IT IS THE DUTY OF EVERY BODY READING THIS MESSAGE THAT AS AYATULLAH SISTANI HAS GIVEN HIS FATWA AS WELL AS ALL THE OTHER MUJTEHADINS ARE AGREED ON THAT 'A virgin girl's marriage without her father's permission is not valid. ' IT IS THEIR DUTY TO STOP MOHAMMED KUMAIL RIAZ S/O GHULAM ABBAS RASI WALA AND MEHAK NAZ D/O SAJJAD HUSSAIN MUKHI FROM DOING SIN(GUNNAH) AS THEIR NIKAH IS NOT VALID AND THEY ARE DOING GUNNAH BY LIVING TOGETHER AND IF ANY CHILD WILL BE BORN HE/SHE WILL BE BASTERED I AM NOT SAYING ALL THIS BY MYSELF BUT OUR MUJTEHADINS ARE TELLING THIS THE ONLY OPTION REMAINING FOR THEM IS TO RECITE NIKAH ONCE AGAIN AS NOW THERE IS NO NEED OF TAKING PERMISSION FROM THE FATHER OF MEHAK NAZ AS NOW SHE IS NOT VIRGIN ANY MORE AND PLEASE ALSO TRY TO CONVINCE THE MOTHER OF MEHAK NAZ THAT NOT TO DO ANY THING AGAINST SHARIAT.

GO MEZANI’S GO TO HELLMEZANI’S ARE CULPRITSWE DO NOT NEED MEZANI’STHEY MUST RESIGN AT ONCEMEZANI’S ARE GOOD FOR NOTHING THAY HAVE DONE NOTHING WE WANT MID-TERM ELECTIONSALL OF YOU MUST DIE WITH SHAME IN A CHILLU OF WATER

I HAVE A PLAN TO CALL AN EXTRA ORDINARY GENERAL BODY MEETING THE CONDITION TO CALL SUCH A MEETING AS PER BYE-LAWS IS ONLY A REQUISITION TO THE COMMITEE WITH AGENDA ONLY FROM 25 MEMBERS OF KHOJA JAMAT AND I HAVE THOSE 25 MEMBERS AND THE AGENDA WILL BE OF MID-TERM ELECTIONS SO BE PREPARE YOUR SELF YOU MEZANI'S

Dear All Members of Khoja Community.This may be of interest to you wrt a potential place in Mumbai - Andheri East Marol.This is a proposal for a 14 storeyed residential tower very close to J.B.Nagar and Church road.The pre-launch rate is Rs 10,000/- per sq ft.Request you"ll to please write back on safedecision@gmail.com for precise details of payment and floor plan.The place is utmost importance as its very close to the assembly that takes place welcoming the PROPHET

WE WANT CHANGE IN JAMAT AS WE ARE TIRED OF SEEING THE OLD FACES OF CULPRIT MEEZANI'S IT IS WELL SAID THAT ABUL HASSAN GOKAL AND ASHRAF HAIDERY WERE NOT FIT FOR THEIR PREVIOUS POSTS THAT IS WHY THEY HAVE BEEN DEMOTED FROM OFFICE BEARERS TO THE MANAGING COMMITTEE

ALL THE OFFICE BEARERS ARE UNNECESSARY BURDEN ON THE POOR JAMAT AS THEY DO NOTHING FOR A POOR MEMBER OF JAMAT BUT WHAT THEY DO IS TO FILL THEIR OWN POCKETS BANK ACCOUNTS AND DRINK TEA WHILE SITTING IN THE AIR CONDITIONED OFFICE SHAME ON ALL OF YOU MEEZANIS

ALL THE OFFICE BEARERS ARE UNNECESSARY BURDEN ON THE POOR JAMAT AS THEY DO NOTHING FOR A POOR MEMBER OF JAMAT BUT WHAT THEY DO IS TO FILL THEIR OWN POCKETS BANK ACCOUNTS AND DRINK TEA SMOKE CIGRETTES, PIPE & CIGAR WHILE SITTING IN THE AIR CONDITIONED OFFICE SHAME ON ALL OF YOU MEEZANI'S YOU SHOULD RESIGN AT ONCE